Our main finding is that reactions that are catalyzed by a highly specific enzyme are shared by poorly divergent species, suggesting a later emergence of this function during evolution. In contrast, reactions that are catalyzed by highly promiscuous enzymes are more likely to appear uniformly distributed across species in the tree of life. From a functional point of view, promiscuous enzymes are mainly involved in amino acid and lipid metabolisms, which might be associated with the earliest form of biochemical reactions. In this way, results presented in this paper might assist us into the identification of primeval promiscuous catalytic functions contributing to life’s minimal metabolism.